Still Around
by Ms Gatsby
Summary: Reeling from the loss of Amy and Rory the Doctor reflects on those he's lost and let go. Feeling that he deserves to make at least one selfish decision in his life he crosses the void into Pete's world to find Rose and take her home. The Metacrisis' reaction is less than positive when he realizes his timelord self is back; and Rose has to make the biggest decision of her life.
1. Prologue

A/N: Hi! This is my first Doctor Who fic, I've been a fan since I was 3 so this is well over due. I based it on a fanvid by Carbuncle22 called 'Rose is Still Around' I highly recommend you check it out, I don't usually like fanvids but this was AMAZING!

Let me know what you think reviews and CC are appreciated :D

Thanks for reading!

- Ms Gatsby

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He was done. It was over; he couldn't take it anymore. Losing the Ponds was it for him, no more; he'd never have another companion as long as he lived. All he did was ruin the; there was Donna, who'd never remember their adventures or just how important she really was, Sarah Jane who he left and never returned for, Sarah Jane who waited her entire life for him, and how did he repay her? There was Tegan, the Australian air hostess who was just trying to get to Heathrow; of course he had to sweep her up on one of his adventures. Why? Because he could.

Who was he to meddle and risk their lives, Jamie, Mel, Perri, Ian, Barbra, Ace, Jo he'd put them all in danger and changed them, not just the course of their lives but changed who they were, they'd seen things that humans of their time weren't supposed to. He'd even left his own Granddaughter and never returned; and Adric had paid the ultimate price. He didn't deserve any of them.

His thoughts turned to Martha, smart, brave, _brilliant_ Martha. He didn't give her what she deserved, he was still raw from the loss of Rose when she came along, he couldn't see what an amazing companion she could have been.

_Rose._

The name stung his mind.

"Rose Tyler." He said out loud to no one, his voice barely a whisper as a solitary tear fell down his face; the console room had never felt colder or more empty.

The Tardis hummed in sympathy; she missed Rose too, they had had a connection, she she'd seen how happy Rose had made the Doctor, happier than he'd been in centuries.

"I know." the Doctor whispered as he stroked the console in an attempt to comfort his one constant companion.

His mind was taken back to their last adventure, when he left her on Bad Wolf Bay with his Metacrisis.

_"Does it need saying?"_ the four hardest words he'd ever had to say; that day he wanted nothing more than to confess his love to her and take her back to the Tardis.

But he didn't. He let her go to live a life with his human half; it was what was best for her he had reasoned. She deserved a normal life, one with her family and someone who wasn't afraid to love her back and let her know he did.

But maybe he was wrong, maybe he should have been selfish and kept her; she did say she loved travelling with him. Even after all this time he needed her, he loved her. It wasn't to say that he didn't love River, comparing each relationship was like comparing apples and oranges. Rose was different, she had saved him. She'd come along after the time war when he had nothing to live for; he was broken and she had fixed him, she gave him hope; she gave him someone to live for.

No. He had to fix this, if there was one thing he wanted to make right it was this, he needed to get her back. His head shot up and with a smile on his face he straightened his bow tie.

"Maybe if I just…" he started whizzing around the console, hitting buttons and turning knobs as he went, his heart racing with hope. "AHA!" he exclaimed excitedly as the tie rotor began to move.

"Ready old girl?" he asked the Tardis who was already humming in Protest. She refused to move, she wasn't going to risk both their lives. The Doctor's smile began to fade, he needed this, why couldn't she understand?

"Please?" he whispered to her, holding back tears "Please?" he stepped back from the console, defeat painted all over his face. Suddenly she gave in and the Doctor was thrown around the room, he laughed as explosions came from every direction. "Into the void!" his excitement evident over the chaos.

Then everything went black.

He came to to the smell of burning; he rubbed his head as he stood to inspect the damage done to the Tardis. She looked as she had the first time he had gone through the void; dark and sick, barely a sign of life. He hurriedly searched the console room for a sign she had survived; he began to panic when he found none.

Then out of the corner of his eye he saw it, a bulb glowing dimly. He looked at it apologetically as he did as he had done before and gave her 10 years of his life to begin healing her.

After putting the bulb back into place he headed to the burnt out door, his hand rested on it. How would he find her? What would he say? What if she didn't want to see him? He gulped as he pushed his fears to the back of his mind and opened the door. As he stepped outside he looked up to see zeppelins filling the early morning sky; he'd never been happier to see one in his life.

"Right then, right universe; good. Now to find Rose Tyler" he said with a smile as he headed through the London streets to start his search.


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: Hi everyone! Sorry for not updating sooner, I've been in hospital :/

I hope you enjoy the next chapter!

Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed, it means a lot! :)

- Ms Gatsby

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The Metacrisis Doctor awoke with a start and shot up; something was different, he felt it in the air, in his bones; it felt wrong and familiar at the same time.

"Mmmm it's too early." Rose's pillow muffled voice came from next to him.

"Sorry." He replied, laying back down and putting an arm around his girlfriend "it's just…"

"What?" he could hear the concern in her voice.

"Nothing, just… a dream, it was only a dream." He lied giving her a quick kiss on the cheek as she began to drift back to sleep. Unable to settle his mind he moved carefully out of bed, changed, and headed into the kitchen.

Careful not to make too much noise he made himself a cup of tea and settled at the kitchen's island and cursed himself for being up so early, it was his day off and he couldn't function well with such a small amount of sleep like he used to, human biology had nothing on his former time lord biology. He sighed as he picked up the sonic screwdriver he had built himself when he arrived in this universe. Perhaps the greatest sign that his life was so different now, it spent the majority of the time on the kitchen bench, or a bedside table or hall stand. He didn't use it day to day anymore, it was more of a convenience; even Torchwood had its own way of doing things which didn't require his sonic. At first he felt anxious without it, but now it seemed somewhat strange using it, like it was awakening something long gone inside of him.

He contemplated going to find the source of the disturbance, he was curious, he needed to know what it was. It felt different to the alien visitors he sometimes sensed long before their case hit his desk at Torchwood. He reason that he should at least wait until Rose was up so he could let her know what was going on, he highly doubted she'd pass up on another adventure.

Rose's alarm broke his thoughts; he sighed and shook his head as he walked over to the toaster to make some toast for Rose. He smiled as he realised just how domestic he'd become, here he was making breakfast for Rose without breaking anything or starting a fire; and sure he had carpets- but no mortgage thanks to his and Rose's jobs at Torchwood – but he had Rose and a life with her he never thought he could have.

Suddenly Rose burst into the room in a black pinstripe dress and black heels.

"I thought you were calling in sick today." He was disappointed; he and Rose hadn't spent much time together lately, mostly thanks to work.

"So did I" she said hurriedly "negotiations between my team and the people of Chlom broke down, they're demanding to speak with me."

She squeezed past him to grab a piece of toast and headed to the door. She looked back at him as she went to leave, he was leaning in the island with his head down; he looked defeated.

"Hey" she said softly "I'm sorry."

He lifted his head, his eyes met hers and he gave her a smile, the one gave her when he tried to convince her he was ok. She took her hand off the door handle and moved towards him, taking his hand.

" S' not your fault." He told her as he pulled her in closer.

"But you know I'd rather be spending the day with you, right?" she reassured him " And you know" her hands moved to the waistband of his pants " that it's only fair that I make it up to you."

"Well." He started "if that's the case, you'd better get a move on Captain Tyler." He smiled as he leant down to kiss her "Now go." He ordered in a mock harsh tone.

Rose reluctantly let him go and headed to the door; the Doctor smiled after her, he couldn't be more proud of Rose, _his _Rose Tyler, defender of the Earth.

"Doctor." She stopped as she reached the door for a second time.

"Yeah?"

She turned to face him "I love you." She gave him a wide smile.

His smile grew to match hers "Rose Tyler, I love you too." He replied, he never missed a chance to tell her these days.

With that Rose hurried out the door, the Doctor heard her car engine start up and the car pull out of the driveway. Once he was sure that she was a fair distance away he picked up his sonic screwdriver and headed out to the garage, if he and Rose couldn't spend the day together like they'd planned, he sure wasn't going to sit around moping.

He threw open the door and began to search through the odds and ends they had stored in there; unlike regular people who might keep their car and a couple of boxes in the garage, his and Rose's was chaotic, mostly filled with the Doctor's unfinished attempts to improve Earth technology or alien technology he and Rose had come across, hiding it from Torchwood, there were some things humans weren't supposed to get their hands on he reasoned.

He began to rummage through a large trunk in the very back. "Come on, I know I left you in here." He muttered under his breath. His frustration grew as his search continued to turn up nothing; odds and ends flew through the air, mingling with the dust that was now floating around the room.

"HA, there you are!" he pulled out a contraption and held it up "I knew I kept you for a reason."

He flicked a switch and the timey-wimey detector he built when he first arrived in Pete's world came to life.

"Still working, brilliant!" he hurried into the house and grabbed his coat- an exact copy of the one Janice Joplin had given him- that Jackie and Pete had gifted him for his first Christmas and headed out the door.

If the air was cold he didn't feel it, he was too focused on finding whatever it was he was looking for; he knew he'd know it when he saw it, it was just a case of being patient, something he wasn't well versed in. Walking quickly, he fiddled with the timey-wimey detector; it suddenly came to life making a fast clicking sound. He hurried through the cold London streets as the clicking got faster and faster as he headed closer to the centre of town, it was times like these he was glad he and Rose could afford to live in a nicer part of town, it allowed him to be completely absorbed in whatever he was doing and he didn't have to be on his guard, at least not around humans anyway.

Suddenly as he turned a corner he heard it, the sound he'd been waiting for, 'ding'. As he turned onto a semi busy street the ding got louder and more frequent.

"Ha, good old ding!" he had to be close, he was even more excited now, his heart was racing and his breathing quickened, the timey wimey detector told him he was getting closer and closer.

As he almost reached a second corner his phone rang, he jumped as the noise pulled his mind away from the task at hand. Slowing down to a stop, he reached for his phone; he smiled as he glimpsed the caller's name on the screen.

"Rose." He answered with, almost sounding like he was asking a question.

"Well hello to you too!" she answered playfully "What have you done now?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're using that tone you use when you've done something you don't want me to find out about; like that time you used Mum's hairdryer as parts to make a- what was that anyway?"

"It was one time! Jackie will never let me forget it, will she? Anyway aren't you supposed to be exercising some interplanetary diplomacy?"

"Yeah, but they started arguing amongst themselves, so we left them to it for a bit. So I was thinking we could meet up and pick out an anniversary present for Mum and Dad, that is if you're not too busy..."

"Or we could meet back home and-"

"No Doctor, it's next week, we've gotta get them something, their anniversary's next week."

"Rose, they have everything!" he argued.

"Great so I'll see you in half an hour then." She ignored his argument "I'll text you the address, I gotta go, love you, bye."

And with that she was gone the Doctor looked at his phone and sighed and shook his head as he put it away. He looked down at the timey wimey detector which he'd managed to silence during his and Rose's phone call, he was so close, so close and he could feel it.

With a heavy heart he turned on his heels to head home, as he turned he could have sworn he heard something, something so familiar to him and something oh so unique to him. He turned back around and contemplated peeking around the corner, but it couldn't be, it just _couldn't be_ he reasoned; it was impossible. He turned back around and began his walk home, his coat billowing behind him and his mind working away.

On the other side of the wall, just around the corner from where the Metacrisis Doctor had been standing a certain Time Lord let out a relieved sigh, he had held his breath as his copy almost discovered him. He had made the mistake of using the sonic screwdriver to copy the information from the Metacrisis' phone; he wondered what he'd make of him being back in this universe, he guessed he wouldn't be too happy, so he decided to lay low until he had at least seen Rose. Once he was sure the Metacrisis was a decent distance away, the Doctor reached into his bigger on the inside pockets and pulled out a phone, the one which his former companion Martha Jones had given him to keep in touch, it felt like it'd happened in another life, and in a way he supposed it had. He transferred the information from the sonic to the phone; he smiled as he scrolled through the contact list and found Rose's number, the contact photo looked like it'd been taken while they were on holidays; she was wearing a white and blue summer dress and was beaming a brilliant smile up at him, she looked so beautiful and so _happy. _

He contemplated leaving, how could he be so selfish? He could tear them apart and break her heart; as he turned in the direction of the TARDIS the phone lit up with a text message from Rose to the Metacrisis telling him where they were going to meet up. He stood for a moment, conflicted, he looked in the direction of the TARDIS and then in the direction where Rose would be, he took a deep breath and made his decision, he was going to see Rose Tyler again.

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A/N: I was going to take this chapter up to where the Doctor sees Rose for the first time but decided against it.

I hope you enjoyed it, thanks for reading!


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